Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Rough Tough Dog Kennel

I got a call from someone who was having some separation anxiety troubles with a Lab. I went over a few basics and then asked if they had crate-trained the dog. They had had a crate, but the dog destroyed it. I recommended this one from LL Bean -- solid, roto-molded heavy duty hard plastic and made in the USA by Ruff-Tough. Not a cheap three-piece plastic pet store job from China (which do fine for most dogs). Are there any other solid body models folks would recommend short of the all metal stainless jobs?

The weak point with the RuffTuff would be the door. The Gunner Kennel, with the same concept plastic body, has a stronger door as the crash tests conducted by CPS showed.

The CPS (an independent non-profit) crash tests with dog crates:http://www.centerforpetsafety.org/test-results/crates/2015-crate-study-results/http://www.centerforpetsafety.org/test-results/crates/2015-top-performing-crate-carriers/The RuffTuff was tested but the best performing crate was the Gunner Kennel. The videos of the crash tests are sobering.

A crate that is escape proof is the Proselect Empire Dog Cage by Petedge. https://www.petedge.com/zpetedgemain/catalog/productDetail.jsf?wec-appid=PEDM_WEBSHOP_TR&itemKey=005056A633791ED2B59175292C3C6FB3However, if an anxious and desperate dog tries to chew its way out by biting the steel bars, severe dental damage can happen. A solid body crate is safer as long as the dog cannot chew through, crash through, or squeeze by the door, or undo the latch/es. One of mine, no sep anx, figured out undoing latches from the inside in no time.

Some dogs w/ sep anx are helped by a crate, but caution, in other cases crating makes the anxiety worse. It depends.

I've fostered a few dogs. One had anxiety issues. To crate her we had a wire crate inside an airline crate. Both of which she escaped from individualy. It was an ordeal so we gave up on crating as soon as she was house broke and done chewing on stuff. Her new family got her a huge (great dane sized) wire crate and she seemed happy with that.